A new, uneasy dawn of UCLA football broke Monday morning with interim coach Jedd Fisch guiding the Bruins through their first practice since Jim Mora was fired.
Fisch called the situation “by far the hardest challenge” of his coaching career, with players dealing with the emotional fallout of Mora’s dismissal Sunday and heading into a shortened week that ends with a game against California on Friday night at the Rose Bowl.
“It’s a very, very difficult circumstance,” said Fisch, who will continue to call plays as the offensive coordinator.
Fisch, 41, acknowledged that he would like to be considered for the head coaching job — “I think that anybody would like to be the head football coach at an extremely prominent university,” he said — but said he was focused on the Bruins finishing the season undefeated at home to leave Mora’s legacy as one where his team qualified for a bowl game in five of six seasons.